Areas of Practice

LTC (Ret) Carl Steinbeck, a Regular Army Judge Advocate, served in the UCMJ arena for many active duty years between 1990 to 2020, where he resolved many hundreds of cases. He served multiple tours in the U.S. Army Trial Defense Service (TDS), three of those as a Senior Defense Counsel where he mentored and trained junior defense counsel. In each of the locations— Fort Hood, Texas, Fort Jackson, S. Carolina, Ansbach, Germany, and Vicenza, Italy, Carl Steinbeck defended serious felony level charges such as murder, rape, and larceny with aggressive trial advocacy. Carl Steinbeck also served numerous tours in the prosecution roles such as Trial Counsel (III Corps, Fort Hood Texas), Chief of Military Justice (U.S. Army Aviation Center, Fort Rucker, Alabama and 1st COSCOM, Iraq) and Deputy Staff Judge Advocate (3rd Army/US Army Central (Fwd)) in Kuwait. LTC Steinbeck has also advised on many hundreds of Article 15 non-judicial punishments and has defended Article 15s that were “turned down” and the Service Member demanded Trial by Court-Martial. LTC Steinbeck also served as Military Advisor to the U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues (since re-named Global Criminal Justice) at the U.S. Dept of State Headquarters in Washington, DC, where he supervised the U.S. Dept of Justice’s Iraq Rule of Law engagement and he provided direct judicial legal support to the Iraqi High Tribunal Judiciary. LTC Steinbeck additionally was the Dept of State’s designated representative to the Dept of Justice led inter-agency Guantanamo Review Task Force where he analyzed, interviewed, voted, and also reported on all agency intelligence collected on the unlawful enemy combatants detained at GTMO Bay, Cuba. LTC Steinbeck further served in the Pentagon for Office of The Judge Advocate General as Chief of Strategic Engagements Branch, where he planned and facilitated strategic legal discussions between General Officers and their senior legal counterparts around the world.

By rotating between prosecution and defense positions over several decades, LTC (Ret) Steinbeck has acquired knowledge of the military culture and military law along with trial strategies and tactics to aggressively pursue Justice for his clients before Attorneys, Commanders, Article 32 Investigating Officers, Juries (Panels), and Judges alike.

IMPORTANT NOTE: While felony prosecutions in all state and federal courts require 12 jurors to vote unanimously to convict, per the UCJM, there is usually only 5-7 jurors (panel members) and the prosecution only needs 2/3rds vote to convict (e.g. only 4 of 6 jurors required to convict a service member), thus making it much easier statistically for the government to secure a conviction. Thus, there are no hung juries in the military. Moreover, while the civilian jury pools across America are randomly selected by Clerks of Courts, in Courts-Martial the Commanding General hand-picks the jurors/panel members after reviewing potions of personnel records. This aspect further can serve to make it easier for the government to secure a conviction against a Service Member, as the most senior officers and NCOs are often selected due to their seniority in rank/grade and interests as senior leaders in enforcing “good order and discipline”. Thus, it is of paramount importance to hire an attorney that knows this complex process, has the experience to navigate within this legal framework, and assert/advocate appropriate legal challenges.